It's Winter!

 Yesterday my friend Shawn and his friend Nate and I headed up to the mountain f/n/a "Big Mountain" to earn our first turns of the season.  The thermometer on the Subaru read 20 degrees and figuring that sounded pretty warm, we decided to ignore the wind that was whipping around us and visibly blowing trees.  "If it's windy in the Valley it's probably going to be windy up high" I keenly observed.  "That's what we would normally say" said Shawn.  We all laughed and pulled up to the nearly-empty parking lot to gear up and head up the mountain.

First, I should note that there is a lack of pictures here because it was so incredibly horrible that the last thing I could think to do was snap pictures.

Shawn is a snowboarder and had his board on his back -- it acted like a sail.  The short skis he was wearing were definitely not providing enough surface area to let the skins to their thing and adhere to the snow.  I know things are very wrong when I'm ahead of Shawn -- he's an uber athlete.  Nate had already darted far ahead.  I kept looking back to see Shawn blown backwards, sliding around, falling and generally looking miserable.  I figured he'd rally and since it was so horribly windy and cold, and because my hands were becoming painful clubs, I hurried up the pitch hoping to find shelter from the wind where I could wait for Shawn.

He never appeared.  I figured he turned back, and thought to take my skins off and head back myself since I had the car keys, but it felt too cold to stop and I was nearly to the Summit.  I completed my mission and found respite from wind at the Summit House where I removed my skins, put on about 5 coats and began my blissful and hard-earned powder run down (a different run, out of the wind). 

Shawn ended up waiting something like 45 minutes for me in the cold, since nothing was open, but managed to forgive me (I think/hope).  We had both planned originally to hike up today (Sunday) as well, but agreed that it was maybe not so awesome when the wind and cold brings you to your knees.  It's a really good reminder about how mean winter can be if she wants to, which brings me to:

My shell sled for Susitna came.  I need to make it into the gear-hauling machine it is destined to be.  I need to get out and find out what it's like to run with a sled full of gear.  After yesterday's punch-in-the-face of winter, I'm thinking I will need many balaclavas and a lot of hand warmers.  If the weather turns like it did yesterday at Susitna, there's no reason why I am subjecting myself to that for 40+ hours.  Rest assurred I'm not that crazy.  Call me weak if you want...  I like my fingers and toes.

Such a Softie

I basically took an entire month off from exercise.  Had a fun time in San Francisco and Vegas and saw Grandma in Florida.  I ran once that I can recall during that month, did no Crossfit and did virtually no skating/roller derby.  I think it's good to take break.   That said, I feel awfully "soft" about now and definitely need to get back into the swing of things.  Remarkably, I didn't gain weight.  However, I probably have half the muscle and twice the fat :p 

November 1 marked the date on which I would return to exercise, and I was sad to realize how quickly I appear to lose strength.  I know that endurance endures with little maintenance (for me anyhow) but my first Crossfit workout back was depressing.  I wanted to cry.  Not only do I have some weird mobility issues going on in my shoulder that prohibits me from lifting over my head, but I can only squat about half the weight I was able to squat a month ago.  It's pretty depressing but I have my work cut out for me.

Time to trade in the beer for vegetables

At the same time, I need to figure out how I'm going to train for Susitna.  It gets pretty dreary here in these winter months, and I now remember why I committed to no early season races last year -- I hate running here in the winter.  I figure I can get by though on the following "training" "plan" -- I am interested in your thoughts on this approach:

M = 2 hour roller derby (p.m.)
T = a.m. 5 mile run, p.m. Crossfit
W = a.m. or lunch Crossfit, p.m. 2 hour roller derby
R = a.m. 5 mile run, p.m. Crossift
F = rest
S = something long (7-12 hours) (Ski touring, snow-shoeing or running)
S = something sort longish (skiing (even a day of downhill), ski touring, snow-shoeing or running)

Between now and Susitna I will aim to do 2-3 12 hour runs with my sled on snow...  those will probably be in January/February.

I hope this will suffice because I simply cannot bear the thought of running long every weekend in the dreary sadness that is road-running during the winter.  Just thinking about it makes me want to cry.  I ran a little under 12 road miles today and although I was in good company, I wasn't really digging it.  So, hopefully this will end up being a sufficient plan.  I know my Swiss-German friend will be underwhelmed, but this is the best I can reasonably do.